'Jeremy Clarkson is an embarrassment to Britain' blasts Argentine ambassador

TOP GEAR presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been branded a "serial provocateur" and "an embarrassment to British people", in the latest blast by the Argentine ambassador to the UK.

Alicia Castro has continued her campaign against the highly-paid BBC star, following Clarkson's controversial stunt last month in which he drove through southern Argentina in a car sporting the numberplate 'H982 FLK'.

It is alleged the plate was chosen in order to taunt the South American country over the 1982 Falklands War.

The Porsche which Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson used whilst filming in South America [ENTERPRISE]

Ms Castro has already issued a formal complaint to the BBC over Top Gear's filming in her country.

And she continued her war-of-words by telling The Telegraph: "Jeremy Clarkson is an embarrassment to the British people.

"It’s not a problem of ours.

"It’s not the first time he has been so provocative – he did it in Korea, Mexico, India. He’s a serial provocateur."

The ambassador also labelled Clarkson's claim that the offensive number plate was merely a coincidence as "ridiculous".

Speaking to the newspaper during the book launch of Malvinas Matters, a hardback that draws together a series of articles and commentaries about the Falklands conflict, Ms Castro spoke of her hope that the BBC will take action.

She added: "He's already prompted formal complaints from other ambassadors.

"For example the Mexican ambassador, Ambassador Medina-Mora.

"So we're waiting for an answer from the BBC, because we have formally asked for an apology – which I think is the least that we could expect."

Clarkson previously defended the now-infamous number plate, which is believed to feature in an upcoming episode of Top Gear, by posting on Twitter: "For once, we did nothing wrong.

"The number plate WAS a coincidence. When it was pointed out to us, we changed it.

"They threw us out for the political capital. Thousands chased crew to border. Someone could have been killed.

"This was not a jolly jape that went awry. For once, we did nothing wrong."

But last week, Ms Castro blasted Clarkson's allegations of being hounded from Argentina as "entirely false accusations".

He explained: "Argentine Ambassador to the UK, Alicia Castro, made a formal complaint to the BBC regarding Jeremy Clarkson's provocative behaviour and offensive remarks towards the Government and the Argentine people, following Top Gear's recent filming in Argentina, calling for the BBC to make a public apology.

"Clarkson arrived in Tierra del Fuego, just 400 miles form the Malvinas Islands, flaunting a car with the number plates H982 FKL, evoking the year and the initials of the territory in which the war took place.

"Subsequently, he claimed it was a ‘mere coincidence’ with no intention of provoking a reaction.

"Castro recalled that our country is home to more than 250,000 British descendants, the largest such community in Latin America, including 70,000 of Welsh origin, whose settlement in Patagonia will mark its 150th anniversary in 2014.

"Ambassador Castro noted the excellent degree of cooperation various ongoing BBC projects continue to enjoy in Argentina, stressing her desire for this to remain the case.

"Finally, the Ambassador showed Mr Cohen a great number of letters of support received by many British citizens, including MPs, journalists and other personalities, condemning Clarkson's provocative behaviour.

“The Embassy of Argentina awaits a proper response from the BBC."

Top Gear – which is estimated to be the most widely-watched factual TV programme in the world with some 350million views each week in 170 different countries – has been at the centre of numerous controversies throughout the past year.

After publishing a video apology in which he "begged for forgiveness" after footage emerged on him using the N-word on set in May, Clarkson is said to be on "his final warning".

Commenting on the formal complaint from Ms Castro, a BBC spokesman said: "The BBC has received a complaint and will apply its usual processes."

The loathsome Cristina Fernández de Kirchner gets yet more ammunition in her continuing efforts to deflect domestic attention from minor irritating issues such as the Argentinian economy. The less the Argentinians ask about that, and focus on small islands hundreds of miles away, the better. Jeremy 'millions and millions and millions, all generated by populist bluster' Clarkson gets EVEN MORE free advertising. New book/ DVD out in time for Christmas?; you betcha! The BBC is guaranteed a ratings winner. every pub bore in the UK gets to praise Clarkson, and by extension can spout whatever biggoted rubbish they like on the basis that Clarkson no doubt holds the exact same opinion

I have a fairly neutral opinion on Clarkson: he is entertaining, but his opinions are thinly-disguised and often unpleasant. And bear in mind he is not a generous or philanthropic man - I know, from those dealing directly with him, that he will not use his celebrity status to help charities. Clearly god helps those who help themselves, and Clarkson thinks he is god.

Jeremy Clarkson is definitely a love or hate figure. I really do not like him - an arrogant and trivial person IMO.So popular though.I don't watch Top Gear any more, just to avoid him !He is so condescending about any vehicle less than a Lamborghini that I want to leap through the screen and throttle him. Morning all.

Fair enough Chimera. British Territory ? Why and how ? A long debate.I daresay we will disagree generally about this but at the time of the Falklands War my feelings were mixed to say the least. Firstly the UK Govt. had been holding talks to return the Falklands back to Argentina somehow, in the years before the invasion. Secondly, the Falklands are 9000 miles from the UK and a relic of our Empire as such - and awash as were in N. Sea oil in those days, the morality of our 'possession' of the Falklands is also debatable IMO. Thirdly, the Islanders wanted to stay British and be very rich - well we all want to be rich. However the rights and wrongs of denying these local resource to the Nations in the locality ?I agree with you 100% about 'Marmite' Jeremy. ATB

Car dealer who provided the plates told the Mirror: "I have been contacted by Top Gear and basically I can’t comment."

Weary: Clarkson and boss Andy Wilman

BBC claims that Jeremy ­Clarkson’s Falklands number plate gaffe was a fluke are in doubt after it emerged bosses planned to film a joke stunt with a second registration.

Officials had insisted it was a coincidence the Top Gear ­presenter drove a Porsche through Argentina with the letters H982 FKL on it.

But another set of plates – with BE11 END on them – were found in the same sports car and Beeb chiefs admitted they had wanted to use them in a scene.

And the corporation was plunged into further turmoil after gagging a dealer who sold it the Porsche with FKL plates, sparking accusations of a cover-up over the blunder.

Mark Waring, of Surrey-based Rennsport Classics, was approached by the Mirror to comment on the scandal that infuriated Argentines and left Clarkson and his team fleeing for their lives after being attacked by an angry mob in the South American country.

Asked if BBC chiefs appeared interested in his Porsche 928GT’s number plate, he replied: “You might not be surprised to know that I have been contacted by Top Gear and basically I can’t comment.

“They have given me the number of the press office for you. So I can’t comment. I really can’t. I saw the car on the news and they called me a while after that.”

He said: “If the BBC are involved in a cover-up to protect this man it’s ­unforgivable. If this was an ordinary employee they would be sacked.

“He has become not just become a local embarrassment but an international one to the BBC. If they are trying to withhold information, I will write to the director general to ask him to clarify.”

The BBC refused to comment. But a source insisted officials had not tried to gag Mr Waring. The insider said they approached him as part of a “duty of care”, as they would any person who may find themselves embroiled in a media storm.

But the Mirror was the only news ­organisation to have contacted the dealer. The source added: “He could have spoken if he wanted to but may have chosen not to. He wasn’t gagged.”

Clarkson’s Porsche was found ­abandoned near the border with Chile last Thursday after the Top Gear team fled Argentina in a convoy. Police found the BEII END plates inside the car.

If the plate fits: The other number plate

The presenter was once branded a “monumental bellend” by co-star James May as he tried to defend him against racism accusations.

Top Gear said: “The number plate was not used at any point during filming. It was originally intended to be in the programme’s final scene, a game of car football, but that ending has changed.”

The admission appears to sit uneasily with the BBC’s claim the Porsche’s H982FKL plate was not designed to provoke ­controversy. The source insisted executives bought the car on the back of an advert posted by Mr Waring but the offending number plates had been blurred out – adding: “It was a coincidence.”

The Mirror has seen pictures of what is thought to be the Porsche in question on a classics car website. It is on an advert asking for similar owners to come forward – saying they have sold the one pictured.

The registration is blurred. The original ad that alerted the BBC to the Porsche, which was bought in the summer, has yet to be uncovered. Argentinians believe the BEII END plates were a further pop at the nation, where feelings still run high over the 1982 Falklands War with Britain.

One unnamed official said: “We know bellend doesn’t mean the end of the bell and is a word used instead to describe the head of the penis which is often employed as an insult in England.

“We regard it as another insult to the people of Argentina. We’re sure the Top Gear team were planning another ­provocation with the number plate in the same way they provoked us with the one referencing the Falklands War.”

As the controversy raged, Clarkson was spotted with Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman outside a ­restaurant in London on Tuesday. The pair appeared unshaven and weary.

But there was more bad news for the presenter and his team after it emerged an ­Argentine judge was considering whether to open a criminal investigation into plate changing – an offence that carries a three-year jail sentence.

When the Porsche was found ­abandoned it had been fitted with another number plate, HI VAE.

Court sources said the use of different number plates to those that appear in the car’s official documentation would constitute a crime of falsification. The car, still at a police station in Tolhuin, southern Argentina, is expected to be scrapped or sold at auction.

Clarkson, who arrived back in the UK with James May and fellow-presenter Richard Hammond early last Friday, pulled out of a scheduled appearance on ITV’s Loose Women on wednesday.

He blamed changes in his filming schedule. But earlier he tweeted a snap of himself in bed with chef Heston Blumenthal in a charity bid to raise money for Syria through Unicef.

At the weekend, Clarkson wrote about the attack by irate Argentines over the FKL plate blunder.

Police had been called to the five-star hotel where the crew were staying after angry war vets swarmed into the lobby and warned the presenters and staff to leave “or face the consequences”. Clarkson said: “Richard, James and I bravely hid under the beds in a ­researcher’s room while protesters went through the hotel looking for us.

“The car park was filling up. More were arriving.

“This was starting to get ugly. Twitter was rammed with messages from locals. They wanted blood.”

Terrified members of the crew had been stoned as they fled towards the Chile border. A technician was hit in the face and injured.

Top Gear planned to set fire to cars for dramatic effect, claims Argentina

Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro writes fresh letter of complaint to BBC Trust as Jeremy Clarkson separately risks further criticism by suggesting the protesters he encountered in the country "throw like girls"

Argentina has reopened a row over Top Gear's visit to the country by claiming Jeremy Clarkson's team planned to set fire to their sports cars for "dramatic effect" after they had to abandon filming.A police report into the violence prompted by the BBC show's visit concluded that, following an encounter with violent demonstrators, the crew decided to leave their vehicles behind and burn them.This weekend the claim was strongly denied by the BBC. However Alicia Castro, Argentina's ambassador to the UK, has now written to Rona Fairhead, the chairman of the BBC Trust, to complain that the move would have been "alarming and illegal".

She believes the police report, detailed in The Independent, undermines Clarkson's account of the incident and says his behaviour during filming of the episode fell "well below" the corporation's editorial standards.Her intervention came as Clarkson described the reaction he faced from protesters as "barbaric" and insisted the team "hadn't gone down there to upset anyone". Risking accusations of further provoking Argentina, as well as claims of sexism, he added that the locals who attacked his convoy "throw like girls".The exchange threatens to deepen the row over the show's visit to Argentina in September to film a two-hour Christmas special. Top Gear's crew faced violent protests which left some members injured after locals took exception to one of their cars with the number plate H982 FLK, which was seen as a taunt over the Falklands War in 1982.This weekend Clarkson described the violence as "horrible".He said: "Even if we had done it on purpose - and we didn't - but even if we had, it didn't warrant the reaction that we got because it was barbaric."In a television interview he also cited an advert produced by the Argentine government ahead of the London Olympics in 2012 which showed one if the country's athletes training for the Games on "Argentine soil" in the Falklands.

"We didn't throw stones at them," Clarkson said, referring to the subsequent arrival of Argentina's athletes in Britain. "And yet some of our guys were injured, every single car had rocks thrown at it... thousands of people turned up on the streets with bricks, paving stones, pick axe handles, the whole nine yards and were intent on doing some serious damage to our crew."Speaking on ITV's Jonathan Ross Show, due to be broadcast on Saturday night, Clarkson added that he and his team were only fearful of the objects being thrown at their convoy by angry locals because "we didn't know at that time that they do throw like girls".Clarkson and his co-presenters fled the country after they were spotted driving through southern Argentina in the car with the H982 number plate.Top Gear has insisted that the plate was a coincidence rather than a deliberate stunt. In October Andy Wilman, the show's executive producer, said the team "would not base a joke around soldiers in conflict."However the newly-disclosed Argentine police report, drawn up by the deputy head of the provincial police in Tierra del Fuego, states that the offending number plate was changed after it provoked locals.Argentine diplomats in London believe this undermines Top Gear's insistence that the plate was coincidental because it showed the crew had alternatives. Mr Wilman has previously said the second plate was only acquired after the trouble started.According to the police report the team's vehicles were deliberately blocked by a lorry as they attempted to exit the country for Chile.The lorry "started moving towards the road in such a way as to bring about a collision with the Top Gear crew's first vehicle", according to the police, while protesters "began to throw all manner of objects at the vehicles".

At one point, the report states, the "Top Gear crew took the decision to leave the sports cars behind and set them on fire". Police claim officers impounded the cars after telling the crew they could not burn them. They then gave the team an escort to the Chilean border.Miss Castro has told the BBC that the report, which outlines the assistance given by police to protect the Top Gear Crew, "gives the lie to Mr Clarkson's remarks that the Top Gear teams was 'ambushed' by the provincial authorities and 'sent packing' in order to win favour in an upcoming election".A Top Gear source dismissed the claim that the team intended to set fire to the cars as "nonsense"."We absolutely refute the suggestion the Top Gear team intended to set fire to the vehicles," a BBC spokesman added.